Read Online Desperado by Sandra Hill - Free Book Online Page A

else I’ll use my teeth to open that blister instead of your buttons, you randy goat. And I’ll take a chunk of flesh with it, too.” She gave his cheek a soft whack.
    â€œPromises, promises.” Chuckling, he did as she ordered, and Helen pulled the waistbands of both his slacks and his black silk boxer shorts down to his thighs. Black silk? Oh, my heavens! Yep, he had a blister the size of a silver dollar on the crease where his right buttock joined his thigh, directly below his butterfly tattoo.
    She had to admit, it looked mighty good. The tattoo, not his well-delineated, hard-muscled tush. Lawyering must be a lot more strenuous than she’d thought, she concluded irrelevantly. He probably worked out chasing ambulances.
    Without thinking, she placed a fingertip on the swollen center of the blister, and he flinched with pain.
    â€œDamn, that hurts.”
    â€œSorry,” she murmured. “It’ll have to be lanced and covered with an antiseptic ointment.”
    â€œYeah, I’ll bet these ding-a-lings carry medical supplies. Just break it and cover it with a Kleenex or something.”
    â€œI can’t do that. It could get infected, especially in this heat. Besides, there’s a tube of Neosporin in the first-aid kit I rescued. Although, during World War I, maggots were considered an accepted treatment for infected wounds—”
    â€œYou . . . are . . . not . . . putting . . . maggots . . . on . . . my . . . butt,” he ground out, enunciating each word very cleary.
    â€œ Ay, mierda! I do not believe my eyes.” Ignacio had crept up on them, and his eyes almost bugged out at the sight of her kneeling in front of Rafe’s naked backside. “By all the saints! You two could not even wait till dark to do the corkscrew.”
    Sancho and Pablo scurried up to see what all the commotion was about.
    â€œCan we watch?” Sancho asked in an overeager voice.
    â€œI don’t understand,” Pablo interjected, tilting his head in several convoluted positions. “How do they do it with her—”
    â€œThat’s about enough! You’ve all got your minds in the gutter.” Helen stood and put both hands on her hips, glowering at the bandits. “Rafe has a blister, and I need to take care of it. Otherwise, he’ll never be able to ride tomorrow. Untie him.”
    Ignacio started to protest, but she added, “Listen, there’s no way Rafe could be this Angel Bandit guy. Did you see the way he rides a horse?”
    Ignacio pondered her words, then nodded vigorously. “ Sí , he rides like a niña . Heh, heh, heh.”
    â€œDo you people mind,” Rafe protested. “I’m standing here with my bare butt to the wind.”
    The gang leader scowled contemptuously at Rafe.
    â€œAre you going to untie him?” Helen persisted. “Even an imbecile can see he’s no bandit.”
    â€œIs someone gonna pull up my freakin’ pants?”
    Ignoring Rafe, Ignacio told Helen, “But, señorita , he looks like El Ángel Bandido . And, if he escapes, we will lose the reward.”
    â€œMy ass is gettin’ a chill here, guys.”
    â€œAh, what harm can he do?” Ignacio shrugged. “I have the gun. And he ees a weakling.”
    â€œThat’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
    â€œ Sí , he ees as useless as a spare prick at a wedding. Heh, heh, heh,” Ignacio quipped.
    Helen glared at the vulgarity.
    Rafe snarled at the insult.
    Sancho chomped uninterestedly on a piece of jerky.
    Pablo gaped with undue interest at Rafe’s exposed buttocks.
    â€œIf I get pneumonia, someone’s gonna pay.” Rafe threw the words out flippantly, but Helen could see the spark of anger in his blue eyes at Ignacio’s assessment of his prowess, not to mention his vulnerable nudity.
    â€œ ¡Maldito! He ees a pain in the arse,” Ignacio opined.
    â€œYeah, isn’t he?”